Marcus Freeman joins Josh Pate - Pate State Speaker Series

Summary

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Podcast Summary: Josh Pate's College Football Show — “Marcus Freeman joins Josh Pate - Pate State Speaker Series” (May 21, 2026)

Episode Overview

In this deeply insightful episode, Josh Pate sits down with Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman to reflect on his journey as he enters his fifth year leading the program. Their candid conversation traverses the realities of head coaching at an iconic institution, the weight of perception versus reality, internal and external expectations, handling adversity and failure, leadership lessons, the evolution of college football, and what motivates and grounds Marcus Freeman both professionally and personally.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

The Head Coaching Experience & Personal Growth

• Comparing Expectations to Reality (03:13)

  • Freeman admits the reality of head coaching at Notre Dame is “a lot different than you probably thought on the front end,” highlighting the hidden complexities of the role.
  • Quote: “You have this perception of what a head coach at Notre Dame is... and I just laugh and go, man, I can’t believe they hired me to be the head coach here.” (Freeman, 04:47)

• Imposter Syndrome and Staying Grounded (04:04)

  • Freeman relates to imposter syndrome, but sees it as an essential, humility-inducing force: “It keeps you grounded. It keeps you grateful for the opportunity that you do have. Because I think if you’re not grateful for it, you’ll lose it.” (Freeman, 04:53)
  • Emphasizes that despite the heightened perception of his position, he feels like the same person who started as a GA, stressing the importance of hard work and gratitude.

• Growth Mindset: Never “Arrived” (48:52)

  • Freeman’s philosophy: “There is no finish line... The minute I believe you have arrived in any area of your life, you’ll stop growing. And ultimately, if you stop growing, you fail.” (Freeman, 48:52)
  • Continuous self-evaluation and choosing hard things are vital for ongoing development as a coach, father, husband, and person.

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Handling Expectations, Pressure, and Team Culture

• Building a Culture Focused on Potential & Authenticity (07:19, 08:45)

  • Freeman regularly reminds players and staff that they’re chosen for who they already are and the goal is to “struggle with what we have” — maximizing their potential, not becoming someone else.
  • “Let’s see what the reward of reaching your full potential is. But that’s what you’re chasing every day.” (Freeman, 07:19)

• Antidote to Hype: Focus, Process, and “Choosing Hard” (08:45)

  • Notre Dame is full of high achievers, but Freeman instills a daily discipline of “choose hard.” He sometimes draws from past pain but focuses players on the present challenge rather than chasing future accolades or succumbing to external noise.

• Owning Adversity and Failure (10:33)

  • Freeman resists blaming external forces (e.g., playoff selection committees)—instead, he’s adamant about team “ownership” of results and using failures as growth opportunities.
  • Quote: “If you blame somebody else, you lose it. My job every day is remind everybody…everything that happens to you in life, you have to own it so we can use it to improve from it.” (Freeman, 11:41)
  • Losses and disappointments (“the pain of a loss”) are framed as necessary for growth, likened to the pain of a physical wound whose purpose is to heal and strengthen.

• Leveraging Negative Experiences to Build Resilience (16:13)

  • Freeman views the future as inherently uncertain and recognizes you can only truly learn from failure with honest reflection — growth requires time and intentionality.

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Leadership and Team Building Insights

• Advice to New Head Coaches (20:21)

  • Freeman would advise peers: “You’re gonna lose...and it’s gonna be okay. Use the lessons from losing to help you improve and be better. You can’t do this thing alone. It’s about people.” (Freeman, 20:21)

• Hiring Philosophy: Character Over Résumé (22:10)

  • In hiring, Freeman looks beyond technical expertise: “Anybody can come in here and wow me...but what type of person are you? Show me the experience that you’ve had, the success that you’ve had.” (Freeman, 22:10)
  • He conducts thorough backchannel research for an authentic picture of a candidate’s character, especially in adversity.

• Circles of Trust, Mentorship, and Openness (24:11, 25:20)

  • Freeman’s peer network spans wide, but close confidants are few and deeply trusted.
  • As he’s grown in the profession, he’s found himself fielding more requests for guidance from both new and experienced coaches, and he welcomes knowledge-sharing.

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Media, Public Perception, and College Football’s Changing Landscape

• When to Use His Public Platform (26:49)

  • Freeman only comments on industry issues when passionate and well-informed, seeking out all perspectives before forming or sharing an opinion.
  • Quote: “I want to be well educated before I develop my own opinion...sometimes I’ll share, sometimes I won’t. But if I’m not well educated in the topic, I’ll probably stay away from it until I learn enough.” (Freeman, 27:04)

• Value of Regular Season and Team Success (29:11)

  • On expanded playoffs: “Every Saturday still matters, man. Every Saturday matters in terms of finding a way to go out there and compete.” (Freeman, 29:11)
  • Reinforces the importance of the regular season in shaping team and individual opportunities.

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Game Day: Preparation, Superstitions, and In-Game Mindset

• Game Day Routine and Centering (31:02)

  • Freeman focuses on the team’s mindset more than tactics by game day, striving to project calm and keep players loose yet prepared.
  • Notre Dame’s ritual of attending Mass before home games anchors and centers him.
  • “I don’t want them to feel like they’re robots...each individual is different how they approach a game.” (Freeman, 31:28)

• Handling Sensory Overload and Being in the Moment (37:26)

  • The chaos of game day is managed through deliberate practice — chaos drills, meditation, and sports psychology: “To win the moment, you have to be in the moment.” (Freeman, 37:34)
  • Encourages players to take in the atmosphere pregame, but to lock in once play begins.

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Navigating Outside Noise: Speculation & Success

• Addressing NFL Rumors and Team Distractions (40:27)
  • Freeman is transparent with players about external job rumors and focuses on controlling what he can: being present and committed to Notre Dame.
  • With team success comes individual recognition: “The head coach is a reflection of the players, of other coaches...Let’s just be intentional about and focused on team success. If we do that, your individual opportunities and individual praise…will come.” (Freeman, 42:08)

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Spring Ball Reflections and Looking Ahead

• Post-Spring Assessment (43:15)

  • Freeman sees a talented team with “a foundation that is higher” thanks to off-season conditioning and continuity but insists much work remains.

• Locker Room Authenticity: Esquire Cover and Team Camaraderie (44:37)

  • Reflects on being featured publicly ("the COVID of Esquire"), but relishes in being teased by his football family — “That’s the fun part about being in this building...because we’re allowed to make fun of each other. We’re allowed to be a family.” (Freeman, 44:37)
  • Treasures the “safe places” of home and the football facility, where he’s treated as a person rather than just the head coach.

• True Relationships Beyond the Public Eye (47:03)

  • Stresses the irreplaceable value of authentic, unscripted, behind-closed-doors moments with players and staff.

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Notable Quotes & Moments with Timestamps

• On being Notre Dame head coach:
  “I have this perception of what a college head coach is and what the head coach at Notre Dame is. And, and you probably don’t think that way of yourself...I can’t believe they hired me.” (Freeman, 04:47)

• On gratitude and humility:
  “If you’re not grateful for it, you’ll lose it.” (Freeman, 04:58)

• On failure as growth:
  “In failure you learn the greatest lessons, because they’re inside lessons. In order to learn from those inside lessons…you have to own it.” (Freeman, 11:20)

• On team focus:
  “Let’s just be intentional about and focused on team success. If we do that, your individual opportunities…will come.” (Freeman, 42:08)

• On never arriving:
  “There is no finish line...The minute I believe you have arrived in any area of your life, you’ll stop growing.” (Freeman, 48:52)

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Timestamps of Key Segments

• On entering year five and personal evolution: 03:13–07:49
• Imposter syndrome & gratitude: 04:04–06:51
• Managing expectations, pain, & growth: 07:49–13:13
• Learning from failure: 10:33–13:13
• Whirlwind of becoming head coach: 17:17–19:50
• Advice for new head coaches: 20:21–22:10
• Leadership and mentorship: 24:11–26:12
• Media voice & public platform: 26:49–28:12
• The regular season’s meaning: 29:11–30:44
• Game day rituals & focus: 31:02–32:58, 37:26–39:27
• Handling NFL rumors: 40:27–42:50
• Spring ball and team outlook: 43:15–44:21
• The Esquire cover, locker room camaraderie: 44:37–46:17
• Locker room as sanctuary, authenticity: 47:03–48:26
• On continuous growth: 48:52–50:05

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Conclusion

Josh Pate and Marcus Freeman deliver a wide-ranging, thoughtful conversation about the realities of elite college football coaching — the constant balancing act between high external expectations, self-improvement, and authentic leadership. Freeman’s humility, candor, and commitment to his team’s well-being and development shine through, offering valuable lessons for coaches, leaders, and anyone striving to evolve in their own lives.

Transcript

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[Interviewer / Sports Journalist]

You're about to enter your five. I mean, you knew. I guess you had some kind of idea. All right, here's what I think this whole thing's going to be like. Yeah. Five years from now. Well, now we're five years from then. So how, how comparable is it to what you thought it may be like?

[Marcus Freeman]

Probably there's some similarities, but a lot different than you would imagine. And you never really understand. You always have this envision of what it's like to do something else, what it's like to be a coordinator, what it's like to be a head coach, what it's like to be married, what it's like to be a father. And then you, you get into that phase and you realize there's a. A lot more to it than you think. But it's been one of the greatest joys of my life. And it's because of the people, the players, the people you get to work with every day, this university that makes it special. But it's a lot different than you probably thought on the front end.

[Interviewer / Sports Journalist]

I think most people, when they undertake a really high profile job, feel some level of imposter syndrome. Now, some people lie about it and say they don't feel it, and then other people are more honest and say they do. I know, I felt it before getting to do what I love to do for a living. When you became a head coach, like early on, were there ever moments you're driving home, you're just looking in the rearview mirror, there are mornings in the bathroom, you're saying, man, am I really ready for this? Like, I'm the head coach at Notre Dame.

[Marcus Freeman]

There's still moments, so I spoke in the past tense that I laugh and one, I go hang. I'm the head coach at Notre Dame. But the other times I go, I can't believe they hired me to be

[Interviewer / Sports Journalist]

head coach at Notre Dame.

[Marcus Freeman]

I say that all the time. I laugh. And, you know, because you, as you look at yourself, you probably, you have, I have this perception of what a college head coach is and what the head coach at Notre Dame is. And, and you probably don't think that way of yourself. And I just laugh and go, man, I can't believe they hired me to be the head coach here. And perception and reality are two different things. But I think that human element is important. I mean, it keeps you grounded. It keeps you grateful for the opportunity that you do have. Because I think if you're not grateful for it, you'll lose it.

[Interviewer / Sports Journalist]

Well, here's what's crazy about it. So like, when you're coming up, it could be in any walk of life, it could be in any industry. But in coaching, when you're coming up, normally you're going, maybe a GA for some people, eventually they get their own room, eventually they get their own side of the ball. Eventually they become a head coach. But like the public looks at your Wikipedia page and says, he became a head coach this year. You think, in your mind, dude, I'm still the guy who was like gaing a long time ago. I'm still a position coach. And now you're saying they're paying me more money, like I'm much more high profile. But there's a part of me that still feels like I'm the same dude I always was.

[Marcus Freeman]

Yeah, because you are.

[Interviewer / Sports Journalist]

Yeah, you are.

[Marcus Freeman]

You are. You don't feel different. I always say this perception of you is different. Right. As you continue to rise, people perceive you differently. But who you are on the inside never changes. And that's the thing that I often laugh about, is that I'm still the same person that was a GA or played ball or was a linebacker's coach. But I understand responsibilities are different. I understand that perception may be different, but what I've learned is you still to accomplish the task at hand that you have, it still goes down to those same things that made you a successful ga. And that's hard work. That's working with people, that's gratitude for what you have. And it's the same things that's going to make you a successful head coach

[Interviewer / Sports Journalist]

are these talks you ever have to have with either a player or a staffer. You know, if I'm being recruited by Notre Dame, I play here. That's the most high profile thing I've ever done in my life. If I'm coaching here, it's probably the most high profile job I've ever had in my life. But yet I'm playing and or coaching here because I'm good enough to be here. How often do you have to tell guys, stop trying to reinvent yourself, stop trying to be 150% of yourself. We want you to develop, but like you're here cause we thought you were already good enough.

[Marcus Freeman]

Yeah, it's an everyday reminder, right. As to how do we chase being the best version of ourselves. We all have individual goals. And I think I always say the thing we can control is trying to reach our full potential as a football team, as an individual. And let's see what the reward of reaching your full potential is. But that's what you're chasing every day. And you don't have to be somebody or not, but you do have to struggle with what you have if you truly want to elevate and reach your full potential.

[Interviewer / Sports Journalist]

You were talking about perception and expectation and reality. So you guys, from the moment you were done with last year's season, you knew this is going to be a high expectation year. Coming up publicly, you always have it for yourself. We're going to be ranked really high. You're going to be on the COVID of magazines, like a lot's going to be expected of us. And, you know, 10 years from now, you'll look back on the season and it'll just, you know, it's like a line item. But when you're living it in the moment, there are seven months between the way last season ended and then leading up to this year that people hear noise and there's chatter and there's expectation. I don't know if that changes your preparation at all individually, but how much does it maybe change the way that you try and wire this building to understand, guys, just because it's expected of you? There were three teams last year that were preseason top 10 that finished unranked, like nothing's guaranteed. How much do you have to kind of caution against that? Or is it just baked into the DNA of the building?

[Marcus Freeman]

Yeah, I think more than anything, it's that this place is full of high achievers that want to be the best and they want those things that probably everybody else is expecting from you and your group. And I remind them to struggle with what we have. Right? We have to truly, we say choose hard, which is another rephrase of struggle with what we have and the understanding that there's times we can go and pull from the past. We can use the different moments from the past to motivate us. Right. We all need that. We all sometimes default to just doing what's average, to choosing easy. And so there's times I'll go to the past and pull from that. That's why I always say, keep the pain. I'll pull from the past, but you can't do it every day. You gotta wake up on most days and make the decision, am I gonna choose hard or not? And if we do that, then we got a chance to accomplish those goals and those expectations that everybody has but us daydreaming about that, us thinking about that and not really taking advantage of what we have in this moment is going to waste the opportunity that we have right in front of us.

[Interviewer / Sports Journalist]

I remember back when I played little league baseball, my dad was the head coach, and he'd always get mad at us when we complained about a called third strike because, you know, his message would always be, never leave it in an umpire's hand, an umpire break. And I just, I try and envision you walking around this building at the end of last year. You're mad because you didn't make it to the playoff. Externally, internally, like you can tell me how far off I am. I picture you walking around saying, that's what you get when you leave it in the committee's hands.

[Marcus Freeman]

Right?

[Interviewer / Sports Journalist]

You can't leave it in their hands. You got to leave. No doubt. How close am I to basically being in staff room or being in team meetings?

[Marcus Freeman]

You're spot on in my head. You know, I think at first my default was the same as many other people's. You blame somebody else. That's what default is, is you're just going to blame. It's not my fault. It's. It's the committee's fault. It's somebody else's fault. We should have been in the playoffs. And. But if you, you continue to have that mindset, you can't use that negative experience, right? And I always say you, you, you learn outside lessons when you have success, when you win a game, there's tactical things. We have to do better. We did well. But I believe in failure. You learn the greatest lessons because they're inside lessons. And in order to learn from those inside lessons and improve and be better, you have to own it. You have to own the failures. You have to own the situations. You have to own that you sleep in the bed you make, and that's how you learn from that. If you blame somebody else, you lose it. And so my job is every day is remind everybody and myself that everything that happens to you in life, you have to own it so we can use it to improve from it. I always often say, like, the pain of a loss is. It's tough, it's hard, but it's there to help you grow. It's no different than the pain from a physical wound scab. It's. You have pain, you want to make the pain go away. Well, the inside pain from a loss or a failure, it's there so you can grow from it. You want to make it go away. The only way. A way to make it go away is continue to learn from and grow from it and use it. And so I don't want to lose some of those negative spirits. Yes, not making the playoffs is one, but there's plenty of them in our past. There's ones we all have as individuals and some of these that we have as a team in a program. But I want to use them to make us better.

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[Marcus Freeman]

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[Marcus Freeman]

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[Marcus Freeman]

Yeah, it takes time. It's so funny with the things you say is the things I often remind myself. But our program is the future's uncertainty. Right? We never envision the future with the negative things that are going to happen.

[Interviewer / Sports Journalist]

Yeah, just up it is, it's just

[Marcus Freeman]

perfect upward trend and but life is a bumpy road and you know, you have to embrace that. And it takes time, different amounts of time to, to figure out what you need to learn from the previous failure. But you can learn something if you spend enough time and in really reflection and evaluation and those type of things. And you know, I could study Miami from last year and say okay, here's the things I wish we would have done differently. Right? And what lessons we need to learn from that or A and M the many lessons we learned from there. But it sometimes takes Time, different amounts of time to figure out what you need to learn from each failure.

[Interviewer / Sports Journalist]

I know your goal was to be a head coach. Like when you were an assistant, you looked one day and said, I want to be a head coach. Correct?

[Marcus Freeman]

Correct.

[Interviewer / Sports Journalist]

Okay. So, like, I've never been able to talk to you about this. The moment when that happens, the opportunities presented to you. Brian Kelly's leaving here. He's going to lsu. That entire time, that entire moment in time of your life, what was that like to experience? Because everyone says whirlwind, and I imagine it was a whirlwind for you. There's no, we're going to let you be the head coach. Okay. Go get ready. For two years, it's, you're the head coach, go coach again.

[Marcus Freeman]

Yeah, Yeah. I usually use the word whirlwind, but I'll use tornado. I mean, I'll use something different. It's, it's, it's just, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go. Do this, do that. What? You don't know. It went from late night telephone conversations with, with different members of our board, our AD president, to an interview in person with our athletic director, Jack Swarbick, at the time to, okay, we're gonna, hey, you're in front of the entire staff. You're the head coach. Say something. I'm like, oh, shoot. Hey, guys, what do I say? Yeah, you know, then all of a sudden, hey, we're gonna introduce you as the head coach to the team to next. You know, I was taking photos with my family. My family doesn't know what's going on. Hey, you got to be here at 9 in the morning. We're taking pictures on the field. It's freezing cold. My kids are like, what's going on? My wife is, oh, I got to get clothes for them to. You're on college game day. And I remember actually, that was probably the first interview I did. We were on college game day. I was sitting in a room and I was speaking to them, really looking just into a camera, but you couldn't see them, but you could hear them. And I remember for a moment going like, holy cow. Like, this is a lot, you know. Then next, you know, you had a press conference. You're on the road recruiting for a week straight. Oh, yeah. And we gotta get ready for a bowl game. And it was just, go, go, go, go, go. And you didn't know. It was almost like you were just kind of just in a moment and then you get time to reflect, right? You learn and you know, you're. You're grateful for that moment. Sometimes you wish you can go back and redo it, but you can't. But it is a lot just throwing at you right away. But over time, you figure it out. You start to figure it. I don't know if you ever truly get it all figured out. If somebody did, then they would win every game they played. But you start to figure out, okay, this is what being a head coach entails. What I had to do probably at first is kind of push away and say, okay, who do I need to meet with?

[Interviewer / Sports Journalist]

What's the priority structure?

[Marcus Freeman]

Exactly right. And then over time and experience, you start to say, okay, I'm starting to understand what it takes, our process to have success.

[Interviewer / Sports Journalist]

If I were to have been hired at Florida instead of Summerall, if I got hired at Auburn instead of Alex Goelish, and I called you and I said, hey, man, you've been through this. I know you pretty well. Give me one or two biggest pieces of advice, like, what am I about to experience? What should I prioritize? What were the trial and error results that you went through? What would you say?

[Marcus Freeman]

You're gonna lose. That's the first thing I'll tell you. And because you never think about that, you're gonna lose and it's gonna be okay. And use the lessons from losing to help you improve and be better. Like, you're going to have failures. You can't do this thing alone. It's about people. Get the right people in your building. Spend time with your players because they're the most important people to having success. Recruit your tail off, but understand that you're gonna have failure, you're gonna lose. Just know it's about the people. Get the right people. You can't do everything. You can't do everything. You don't know everything. Surround yourself with people that have answers where maybe you don't have all the answers, because if you have all the answers, then it's hard to grow. I always say that. Be cautious of people that have all the answers because they don't feel that they have the capacity to grow. They don't need to gain wisdom. I love to surround myself with people that have way more answers than I do. And it's okay. You're still a head coach. Don't worry about, you know, bringing in people that have strengths, where you have weaknesses. It's just going to make you and your program better.

[Interviewer / Sports Journalist]

When you're hiring someone, especially someone whose expertise is way out of your wheelhouse sometimes for Some guys that strength and conditioning or nutrition or sports science or something like that. And yet it is up to you to decide whether they're going to work for you or not. What's the interview process like, and how much of it is you saying? Look, look, I'm planning on hiring someone who knows way more than I know about this specific thing. I got a loose understanding of it, but explain it to me. Explain something I don't know a lot about thoroughly enough to where I'm gonna hire you.

[Marcus Freeman]

Yeah, it's those key positions that you mentioned that really the head coach has to make the decision. It's important for me that your interview, more than anything, is going to be as many people as I call that know you that I can trust what they'll tell me. Somebody's gonna tell you the truth. Somebody's gonna tell you the honest truth, and I wanna know who you are in a tough time. I'm gonna call everybody that you've just had a touch point with and say, who's Josh Pate? When it gets really tough, who is he as a person? And a lot of times, for me, that's the interview. Anybody can come in here and wow me and say, hey, I know these X's and O's on offense or defense or this is the greatest thing in the weight room, but what type of person are you? Show me the experience that you've had, the success that you've had. I always say that Notre Dame probably isn't the place to figure out if somebody's qualified to be in that position. You know, I want to see some of the success you've had in previous places. But the other thing is, maybe we're hiring somebody that is in your expertise or your field house, the assistant strength coach or the next intern. Well, now I'm gonna empower you. Right? You. You. You bring the right guy in. Right. You've got to bring the right guy in. Because my expectation is for us to be the best. Right. And you have to now be able to hire somebody you believe is going to help this department be the best. And we're going to hold each other accountable to those expectations.

[Interviewer / Sports Journalist]

How big would you say your circle is of peers? The ones you call on regularly, text regularly, know that you could bounce something off of in confidence. I mean, there are. There are not a lot of head coaches out there.

[Marcus Freeman]

Yeah.

[Interviewer / Sports Journalist]

And it may be like a CEO of a company who's never coached a day in his life, but how big or compact is that circle for you?

[Marcus Freeman]

It's it's as big as you can think is in accessibility. Right. I got a ability to connect with a lot of different people in all different fields just because of who you know, that knows somebody. But you know, the people you talk to regularly, there's not that many because you're just so busy and they're busy and. But you know, in important times, you're able, you can always reach out to them. There's people to reach out to me. If you need to find the answer, there's somebody in that network or in your wheelhouse that can give you that answer or you can gain some of that wisdom. But I'll tell you what, like, people are generous, people are available, but you got to go seek out the answers. They're not going to call you every day. Right. But if you're, if you want an answer, there's somebody or actually multiple people that really have great info, but you got to go seek it.

[Interviewer / Sports Journalist]

How much has that paradigm started to shift a little bit for you now that you're several years into being a head coach where, you know, it starts out you're the one reaching out. And I'm not saying you don't still reach out, but now you may be a guy who people are reaching out to more and more.

[Marcus Freeman]

Yeah, there's been quite a few first time head coaches or guys that have actually coached longer than me that reached out and say, hey, if you're open, how do I want to know how you handle this? Or do you mind if I come and spend a day or two with your program? I'm always open to that. Like, I don't feel like we have some secret formula that we don't want anybody to see what we're doing or come here, spend some time here, because I'm going to gain something from the time we spend together. And I think it's important, I think it's important to help the profession to continue to. I'm not really talking tactical ideas much as big picture ideas with other coaches. And is there a better way to do it? How are we handling the changes that are happening in college football? And you know, I'm accessible and other people have been very accessible to me.

[Interviewer / Sports Journalist]

Man, you're the head coach at Notre Dame, which means you've got a really big voice. You just talked about all the changes happening in college football. It's my job to cover the stuff day to day and I look at some of it and say I've got no interest in talking about this or I don't even understand this. And sometimes those two meet and I don't understand it and I don't want to talk about it. But, like, people come to you inevitably and say, marcus Freeman's thought on this. What is it? Or they just look to you and expect you to speak out on everything. How do you know when the right time is to use your voice? And I got a lot of equity built up. I'm going to throw it behind this or that.

[Marcus Freeman]

Yeah. I think there's times where it is important because of the position you hold. I have to have a strong passion about it. I have to be well educated about it before I just go out and say something.

[Interviewer / Sports Journalist]

That's a. That's a novel concept, by the way.

[Marcus Freeman]

Yeah, that's interesting. Not everybody goes with that theory, but I want to know every side. I want to know why. This group is saying 16 teams. This group is saying 24 teams. All the. I mean, all the different things, Nil, you know, transfer board, all these different areas. I want to be well educated before I develop my own opinion. Right. I'll have an opinion and sometimes I'll share, sometimes I won't. But if I'm not well educated in the topic, I'll probably stay away from it until I learn enough. And then I have to have a passion to want to learn about it, too. Because you're busy. You're busy with everyday task of being a head coach at Notre Dame. Our administration does a great job of informing me on topics that they feel like I need to know, but they also do a great job of don't worry about this, not wasting my time until they feel like I need to know. But then there's certain times that I'll hear something I said I want to know more. Let me talk to our ad. Let me talk to other people in the profession and get their thoughts on this topic. And then I have to develop my own in terms of what I think is best for our program.

[Interviewer / Sports Journalist]

The whole playoff debate notwithstanding, you as a player, former player, you as a current head coach, when you think about being a college football player, college football head coach, I want to ask you what comes to your mind, because I know as an observer, slash passionate fan of the sport my whole life, I never used to think postseason. I thought regular season. I thought Saturdays in the fall. And that's the center of my college football world. And anything that surrounds it is whatever surrounds it. But I've always wanted to crystallize. That's why last year, for example, it sucks you don't make the playoff but at the same time, I love. There's so much urgency placed on things that you got room to lose one game, you could maybe even lose a couple of games. And if everything falls right, then you get in. But, but it's not. You can't lose the third, you can't lose a fourth and still get in. Cause that, that just crystallizes those Saturdays to me. When you're a player, when you're a coach, I say college football. Like, what is the thing that pops in your mind?

[Marcus Freeman]

I still think every Saturday matters and we approach it as every Saturday matters. What changes now is, okay, your mindset maybe depending on the outcome of that previous Saturday. Whereas probably when I played, if you lost a game, for sure, if you lost two, you knew that, okay, we got 12 games and a bowl game. That's what we got. Well, now it's like, okay, guys, we might have lost a game. We still understand what lies ahead, what we can achieve, but this Saturday matters, right? And so I think the ability to have that hope for the postseason is important, but the only way to get to that point is to take care of this Saturday, right? And so I know people talk about, we're devaluing every week with, with the playoffs and maybe an expanding playoffs, but every Saturday still matters, man. Every Saturday matters in terms of finding a way to go out there and compete. We train probably 300 days a year to really get an opportunity to go out there and compete. 12 guaranteed Saturdays, right? And that's what sometimes people don't understand. Like these guys want to go out there and play somebody else. They want an opportunity to go out there and play somebody else for the opportunity to win. And they deserve it. They deserve it. And we're going to continue to cherish those Saturdays. And then we'll deal with the post season when it gets here.

[Interviewer / Sports Journalist]

From the time your alarm clock goes off the morning of a game day to the time toe meets leather game is kicked off, what is it like upstairs for you? What is your mind like? What's your demeanor? Like you got superstitions. Like, how do you carry yourself on a game day?

[Marcus Freeman]

You really try to get a feel for your team, the tactical aspect. Like we always say that, hey, he's never in the barn, but by the time you wake up on Saturday, it's, it's almost as close to being in the barn as you can. Now, we'll still have some walkthroughs, some last minute meetings to, to really fine tune things, but I'm always looking at the mindset I'm looking at, is this team ready? Are we focused on the things that matter? But then sometimes I can't let how I feel personally affect the room. Right, right. Affect the greater good of the room. I got to believe this. I got to say trust beyond knowing that they're, they're ready to go, they're in the right mind frame. But I don't want them to be on edge. I don't, I don't want them to feel like they're robots and they have to walk this way, look this way, act like I want them to. Each individual is different how they approach a game. I'm different than maybe you or the next guy. But we have our process in terms of what we do on game day. I have my own personal process. It's important. We at home games, we always have mass right after that final team meeting, which I love it because it kind of brings you, it centers. You would go from having a team meeting, highlight film, we get on a bus and now let's get centered and get our minds right and understand how fortunate we are to be on this earth. And again, the faith element and that's another subject we could talk about. But I think it's so important to be able to center yourself. Then you walk out of that basilica and there's fans, there's crowd, and it's a rush, it's adrenaline rush. Then you go into the stadium and then you go to the locker room. You gotta get centered again. Right? Okay, here, calm down, go through our process and then get ready for the game. But you know, you just gotta trust beyond knowing that they're ready, that you're ready, that your team's ready. Then go play.

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[Marcus Freeman]

my co worker in line at the pharmacy.

[Interviewer / Sports Journalist]

Can you tell I'm picking up prescription hemorrhoid cream?

[Marcus Freeman]

I'm probably standing weird. Why is he smiling? He knows he's gonna call me Hemorrhoid Lloyd tomorrow.

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I gotta quit my job.

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[Interviewer / Sports Journalist]

I always thought what would overwhelm a normal person most if they were to like walk in a coach or a player's shoes is you don't even have to draw up the plays. Don't worry about that, don't, don't even go to practice and knock heads every day. But I just want you to hang alongside someone who does. So you're going to get all the hours in, you're going to get all the obligations in, or you're at least going to observe that person. But then Saturdays, like game days, applying everything that's happened, those 300 some odd other days a year to that Saturday for 60 Minutes and watching how big a sensory overload a Saturday is. To me, an outsider would look at that and say, I can't believe this person maintains composure. Like, I can't believe this person amidst all this, can even focus. Now. Once you do it a long time, you get used to it. But that's the beauty to me, whether you're even just there as a guy covering the game, a spectator, or especially someone who's between the lines or on the sideline coaching a game is, amidst all that craziness, pageantry, whatever you want to call it that makes college football great, you got someone, many someones, who hopefully are doing a job at an extremely high level and they're able to just like block it all out, which is pretty atypical. Yeah, it's like a starting pitcher in Major League Baseball, like saying, I didn't even notice crowd noise. I didn't even notice this or that because you're so locked in.

[Marcus Freeman]

Yeah, you have to practice that. And it's never going to truly replicate the game and the emotions that a game presents. But you got to practice being able to focus on the moment. We always talk about, do we have to win the moment? But to win the moment, you have to be in the moment. And so you try to do it with crowd noise and practice. You try to do it with surprise. We call them chaos periods in practice where they're not ready and take them into different places to practice. But it's still about the ability to, once the foot hits the ball, can you execute on this play? And the only way to do it is to be in the moment, be present where you're at. And so pregame, I always say, take it in. Some coaches might say, no, I don't want you to look in the crowd. Take it in, man. That's what make, that's what makes college football special. When you run out of that tunnel every Saturday, no matter if I'm a player or I'm coach, it's an adrenaline rush, an excitement, a gratitude emotional moment every single time you do it. But then after everything and all the pre game festivities, are done. You got to get locked in, into the moment. In the most challenging times, once the game starts is those crucial, crucial moments, two minute situations, fourth downplay, third downplay. It's still about being in the moment to execute. It's hard enough to execute and do your job, but you have to be in the moment to do that right? And if you're not in the moment and your mind's elsewhere, there's no way you can get your job done on that play. And the minute that plays over, no matter what happened in the past, refocus. Win this play. And that's just something you got to train, you got to talk about. There's, there's really, there's tools you can use and you can practice in meditation. It can be doing stuff with our sports site guy, doing it out on practice field, but you got to practice that you can. It's easy to say that it's really difficult to do, but you got to practice it.

[Interviewer / Sports Journalist]

I know, like, I don't know anything about figure skating, but it was always fascinating to me that a figure skater can twirl and speed up and speed up and speed up. And you think about how much precision has to go into creating that. And it's the same thing when you're building and when your team is in the right place and when it's clicking. You understand the least little grain of sand in the machine here could throw us off.

[Marcus Freeman]

That's right.

[Interviewer / Sports Journalist]

So last year, you guys lose too early. You know, you got no margin for error and you're trying to walk a tightrope the rest of the year. Well, then all the NFL chatter starts. The job speculation chatter starts on the outside of the building. I'm really curious. We all know how it ended, fortunately. Glad you're still here. But on the outside, how did you not handle it yourself, but tell everyone else how to handle it? You've got people who represent you, you've got family, you got people calling you, hitting you up, and all the while you're trying to say, I'm a racehorse with blinders on. I don't want to hear any of this right now.

[Marcus Freeman]

You know, the year before, there was a little bit of chatter, but you're in the playoffs and that's your only focus. You know, this year got really loud after the end of the regular season. And you know, usually I've never been in this position where we're not playing in a bowl game or playing in the playoffs. And so I did, I took a minute to really say, what is this opportunity of being an NFL head coach. I never coached the NFL. I wanted to know what they look for, what they think it takes to be successful. And I gained some valuable knowledge. I was always honest with our players. If they asked and I talked to them, I said, listen, guys, I'm the head coach at Notre Dame, and I can't control what opportunities or what people are saying outside of this building. But. And I was always in communication with our athletic director and my family. But. But for me, it was the opportunity to be the head coach of this university was one that I wasn't ready to let go. I love this place. I love, more importantly, the people here. The opportunity to coach these young men, many of them you've recruited for multiple years. That's just something I'm not ready to let go of. It's the opportunity of a lifetime. And, you know, again, the other thing I use is to tell the team, like, with team success comes individual opportunities. And the head coach is a reflection of the players of other coaches. We've had some coaches get opportunities to go coach in the NFL, and I'm happy for them. But if we weren't having team success, if we didn't win those last 10 games, then my name or nobody else's name be floating around here. But you get a guy like Jeremiah Love, who had an unbelievable season, that's up for the Heisman, that's the number three overall pick. Well, there's a strong feeling if we didn't win those last 10, that he wouldn't have been up for the Heisman. Right. So it's a reminder for all of us that with team success comes individual opportunity. So let's just be. Let's just be intentional about and focused on team success. If we do that, your individual opportunities and individual praise, those. Those will come, but it's a result of team success. So let's just be focused on team success. And that's the message we constantly say

[Interviewer / Sports Journalist]

as you and I are sitting here. We're a couple of weeks removed from spring ball wrapping up, and the outside world knows, well, Notre Dame will have a lot expected of them. I just saw two tailbacks from the same team going the first round of the draft. So, you know, the public would look and say that may be an area of concern. I actually don't have that big concern for you, that position. But you're the head coach here, so I'll ask as much as you can know about a team coming out of spring, what is the perception of the group you have here?

[Marcus Freeman]

Right now, my perception, yes, it's a talented group and we got work to do. They put in 15 really good spring practices, but before that, we had eight strong, solid weeks of winter conditioning and strengthened conditioning. And that's something we haven't had. We had maybe three, four after the national championship game. And so to have eight solid weeks to look at them physically get bigger and stronger, to have our ability to have football school, so, you know, mentally they're at a different level. The foundation is higher. We have a ways to go, but the foundation, with both coordinators back, our special teams coordinators back, our starting quarterbacks back, we got a lot of production that is back. The foundation is higher, but the work still needs to be put in, right? We got a ways to go till we get to game one. And we have to continue to be focused on struggling with what we have. Let's go back to the very first company. We have to struggle with what we have right in front of us if we want an opportunity to have success and reach our full potential.

[Interviewer / Sports Journalist]

I don't know what it's like to be on the COVID of Esquire. Never done it. I especially don't know what it's like to be on the COVID of Esquire, but then also stand up in front of a room full of 18 to 25 year old guys who have seen it. How was that whole thing perceived and received in this building?

[Marcus Freeman]

I love this. Like I often say, I have two safe places, right? And I'll tell you what that means. Second, I say my home in this football facility, and when I mean safe place, that means that they treat you like a normal person. My role here is, this is my responsibility. My role at home as a husband and a father is my responsibility. But they treat you truly like a normal person. And so when you're a part of a family and you're supposed to be this head football coach and you're on the Esquire, give you some crap, man. It's like, I don't know if you saw that Kevin Hart roast. They were roasting me and. But that's what family does, right? Because the same thing, if one of our players was on the COVID Esquire, I'm gonna be roasting them too. And that's the fun part about being in this building with guys that you love and you trust and you have a true connection with. Because we're allowed to make fun of each other. We're allowed to be a family, and we're also allowed to have clear expectations for Each other. But yeah, there was. There. It was a fair amount of roast being going on. Definitely when those pictures came out, I think a couple guys would walk by my office posing with their hand behind me. Same thing my daughter did at home. She said, dad, I just gotta ask you, like you had your hand behind your head, like, did you choose to do that or they asked you to do it? I said, well, they told me to do that. Your daddy doesn't know what to do. But I love that. I love that we can have those type of interactions.

[Interviewer / Sports Journalist]

Did you do any comparison, you versus Lane? I mean, did you think one was better than the other?

[Marcus Freeman]

And you know what? Credit to him, man, I haven't seen his, but I'm sure he did a good job, man. I'm sure he did.

[Interviewer / Sports Journalist]

Really smart answer. Really, really well handled. You were just talking about something there that I wasn't going to ask you about. But you're talking about basically like the not for public consumption part of being a head coach, the locker room, the brotherhood. Like it's a lot lesser than it used to be because of how much access people have, how much visibility people have. You've got an entire social and digital team whose specific jobs it is to capture as much of the day to day. But yet even then, there's still those few moments, those few sanctuaries that you have where, you know, no cameras, no mics, it's just us.

[Marcus Freeman]

Yeah.

[Interviewer / Sports Journalist]

How different do you feel in those moments versus pretty much 95 other percent of the time when you know there's some kind of spotlight on me.

[Marcus Freeman]

Yeah, it's authenticity. Like that's the real you. I think at times we're all filtered when we have a camera in front of us or a camera on us. But. But those moments where you can be truly authentic and have those one on one conversations or a conversation with a group, and that's life. That's what makes it special. That's a real relationship. It's not a fake one. That's a real one. And that's what I enjoy most about the position I hold is it isn't the notoriety, isn't the wins. It is none of that. It's the ability to have real relationships with other people, especially young people, and in hopes that they're better because of the time they spent with you. These relationships last forever. They don't last until they're gone. These are lifelong relationships. But you hope that because of the relationships that you have with these young people, they're better off in life. And that is A reflection of authentic conversations right in your office where one of your players can be crying or you got to get after their butt, or you got to hold them accountable. You got to show them why. This is why I'm hard on you. This is why I tell you things. This is why you got to continue to choose hard. But that's what real relationships are all about.

[Interviewer / Sports Journalist]

I'm gonna kind of get you out of here on this one. You talked about having never felt like you really arrived. It's always a process. You're always trying to grow football or life. Like, what are areas right now that you look at and you say that's still kind of a work in progress right there. That thing over the past couple of years, I really feel like I've progressed there or maybe I haven't. And I'm trying to. And obviously that all tails back into how you perform at your job.

[Marcus Freeman]

Yeah. I think in every area of your life, there is no finish line until your life here is over. And then I choose to believe there is no finish line after that, because then you go to the afterlife. But there's been growth as a head coach, as a father, as a son, as a husband, as a co worker. There's been growth in every area of my life, but there is no finish line. There's more to grow, there's more answers, there's more improvement. And the minute I believe you have arrived in any area of your life, you'll stop growing. And ultimately, if you stop growing, you fail, you regress, you don't stay the same. You either working out in the weight room, getting better, getting stronger, or you're gonna inflate. Exactly right. And it's the same thing in all those areas that we discuss as a coach, as a husband, as a father. And the challenges to catch yourself regressing, that's the challenge. Because we all, we all fall short in every area at some point. Catch yourself and continue to choose hard. Like, if you can do that, that's probably one of the greatest gifts that a person can have.

[Interviewer / Sports Journalist]

Orchestream.

[Marcus Freeman]

This is awesome, man. Thanks, man.

[Interviewer / Sports Journalist]

Appreciate it.

[Marcus Freeman]

Appreciate you, Jo.

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